Gore Concedes in Speech Before Nation

Published: December 13, 2000

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 — With George W. Bush appearing to have swept away any legal obstacles to winning the presidency, Vice President Al Gore plans to deliver his concession in a speech to the American public tonight, according to people close to him. As a first step this morning, Mr. Gore ordered his recount committee in Florida to halt operations.

Mr. Gore is scheduled to deliver a nationally-televised speech at 9 p.m. from Washington. Aides to Mr. Bush, meanwhile, said they expected that he would finally declare victory after Mr. Gore's concession. He plans to speak at 10 p.m., an hour after Mr. Gore, from the chambers of the Texas House of Representatives in Austin.

"I think it will be a very gracious and thoughtful address to begin the healing process of the country," said a Bush spokesman, Dan Bartlett.

Exactly five weeks after one of the most unsettled presidential elections in American history, the Supreme Court's ruling on Tuesday seemed to give Mr. Bush the right, at long last, to consider himself president-elect.

While the campaigns of Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore were still reading and digesting the Supreme Court's tangled and elaborate ruling far beyond midnight, officials in both camps said it was now virtually impossible for Mr. Gore to reach the White House.

The post-election tumult overshadowed a spectacular political rise for Mr. Bush only eight years after his father was turned out of the White House.

In perhaps a fitting coda to a turbulent election night that never seemed to end, the court's verdict was not issued until about 10 p.m. Gore made no concession Tuesday night, but this morning, his campaign chairman, William M. Mr. Daley, said, "The vice president has directed the recount committee to suspend activities."

President Clinton, who was traveling in Northern Ireland, called Gore at 10:20 a.m. EST and the two spoke for roughly five minutes, said the White House spokesman, Jake Siewert.

The Bush campaign proceeded with extreme caution, mindful of appearing presumptuous — or unduly triumphant. In a terse statement he read to reporters in Tallahassee, Fla., late Tuesday night, James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state and Mr. Bush's top adviser in the case, said Mr. Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney, were "very pleased and gratified" that the court had agreed that "there were constitutional problems with the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court."

Careful not to declare victory, Mr. Baker added, "This has been a long and arduous process for everyone on both sides."

Mr. Bush's advisers said they wanted to give Mr. Gore room to concede before the governor, who was cloistered in the Governor's Mansion in Austin, Tex., publicly proclaimed victory. Mr. Cheney went to the campaign's transition office this morning in McLean, Va.

Mr. Gore himself, who collected more popular votes than Mr. Bush, and who insisted that a full and accurate recount would show him to be the winner in Florida, remained in his home in Washington with his family.

Mr. Daley issued a statement Tuesday night describing the complicated ruling and not leaving any hint of a concession that other Gore aides said would be forthcoming.

"The decision is both complex and lengthy," Mr. Daley said. "It will take time to completely analyze this decision."

But publicly and privately, many Gore intimates said the campaign was effectively over.

"He should act now and concede," Edward G. Rendell, the general chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said on Tuesday night.

Joe Andrew, the party's national chairman, scrambled to depict Mr. Rendell's comments as premature, saying they were "completely inappropriate, if not, outrageous."

Mr. Rendell retraced his steps a bit today on ABC's "Good Morning America," saying the vice president had an obligation to supporters "to see if the door has been left ajar."

Still, most Gore loyalists echoed Mr. Rendell's more pessimistic comments, if not publicly.

"I guess that's the end of it," a Gore confidant said.

Aides said Mr. Gore participated in a midnight conference call with lawyers and advisers, including David Boies, the lawyer who argued the case, and Mr. Daley.

The verdict by the Supreme Court capped a furious legal and political battle that tested a divided and often exasperated nation, exposed veteran judges to accusations of partisan taint and educated Americans about the mechanics of voting machines and the value of their vote.

Mr. Bush's path to becoming the 43rd president at times seemed more tortuous — and was certainly more volatile — than the presidential campaign itself.

On election night, after the networks declared Mr. Bush the winner, Mr. Gore telephoned his rival to concede, only to call back a half-hour later to say that the vote in Florida had tightened so much that he had changed his mind. In the 34 days since, Mr. Gore has clung to his argument that more people voted for him than Mr. Bush and that there were so many difficulties with the balloting in Florida that a manual recount would prove him a winner there.